The present invention relates in general to an improved aircraft structure, and more particularly to a conformal aircraft bay having a single aperture or gap between bay doors.
Modern aircraft are designed to carry a payload in the fuselage of the aircraft. Such payloads include weapons, landing gear, and cargo. Aircraft bays and their components are designed so as to minimize their impact on aircraft performance. To reduce aerodynamic drag and maximize performance, there is a need to design aircraft bays to have a conformal or aerodynamic shape.
Aircraft bays have a number of exterior access doors such as for weapons bay, landing gears, and avionics access. These doors form gaps or apertures with aircraft skin elements that are located between adjacent door panels and between the doors and fixed skins that surround their associated bay hinge. Gaps occur at hinge lines and at the fore and aft ends of a conventional aircraft door. Windows and maintenance access panels also form gaps with the aircraft skin. All gaps on an aircraft must be sealed to reduce aerodynamic drag and turbulence and to prevent dirt and contaminants from entering the aircraft. In military applications, the gaps must also be sealed to reduce electromagnetic emissions and backscattering and turbulence which contribute to the radar cross-section and acoustic signature of the aircraft. Also, the seal for gaps requires time-consuming and costly maintenance. Hence, there is a need to reduce or minimize the running length of gaps on the aircraft to improve aerodynamic drag and radar cross-section during flight as well as to reduce maintenance time in the hanger. Further, there is a need to reduce or minimize the number of gaps for moveable aircraft members, such as doors, preferably to at least one gap for such members.
Elastomeric transition panels are used to seal gaps or apertures associated with various moveable aircraft members such as access doors, access panels and aperture windows. In stowed position, there are dimensional changes in the size and shape of the doors which, in turn, cause dimensional changes in the gaps, due to the large strains and temperature variations modern aircraft encounter during flight. Strains on the order of 20% to 30% may be encountered for door hinge line and door-to-door gaps. Elastomeric transition panels are designed to be elastic to adjust to these strain-induced and thermal-induced dimensional changes. As aircraft doors are deployed, these gaps expand even more dramatically. A prior art elastomeric transition panel that uses continuous moldline technology (CMT) is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,222,699 to Albach.
Therefore, there exists a need for a conformal aircraft bay having access doors and panels which close to form a single gap or aperture which are sealed by elastomeric transition panels.
A single aperture conformal aircraft bay of this invention that overcomes these and other needs is disclosed herein. In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, an aircraft having a conformal aircraft bay is provided in which a cavity forms a bay. A pair of doors attached to the bay, each door having a perimeter with abutting edge portions being located side-by-side while the doors are in a closed position, the doors are structured to open to access the bay with the abutting edge portions moving apart from each other, and each door having an elastomeric transition that is attached to a skin of the aircraft and terminates at the abutting edge portions, the elastomeric transition closing any gaps between the abutting edge portions when the doors are closed.
In accordance with another aspect of this invention, the abutting edge portions engage to seal against each other and extend in a straight line, when the doors are in the closed position. The door portions are joined by a hinge foldable relative to each other along the hinge and are pivotably connected to the bay to open substantially into the bay. The doors may also be opened by sliding substantially laterally apart from each other.